The present invention relates to a terminal assembly, and, more particularly, to a terminal assembly employed for male and female connectors to be mated and connected each other.
A connector assembly has a female and male connector mated with each other for connection. The female connector has a male connecting terminal accommodated and fixed in a female connector housing. The male connecting terminal is disposed at its distal end to protrude into a hood of the female housing.
On the other hand, the male connector has a female connecting terminal accommodated and fixed in a male connector housing. The female terminal is formed at its distal end in a tubular shape, in which the male terminal is to be inserted from its distal end. The female terminal has a contact spring piece formed at its distal end, the spring piece being folding back diagonally in the tubular space.
In the connector of the structure, when mating the male and female connectors, the male terminal is inserted in the end of female connector from its end to be contacted with the spring piece, so that conduction is achieved.
In the above-described connector assembly, however, when the female and male connectors in conduction are mated with each other, the distal ends of the male and female terminals come into contact with each other at first, and an arc discharge generates at contacts to deteriorate or damage the contacts. When disengaging the connectors, the distal ends of male and female terminals last detach from each other, and an arc discharge generates at the distal ends to deteriorate or damage the contacts.
The deterioration or damage generates to the contacts prevents the contacts of the male and female terminals from good conduction, and connector is degraded in reliability.
An object of the present invention provides a terminal assembly with contact protection function which makes ends of connecting terminals to be connected with each other prevented from deterioration or damage for protecting the ends of both the connecting terminals.
According to a first aspect of the invention, there is provided a terminal assembly. The assembly includes a pair of terminals including contact parts to be contacted with each other for conduction. Respective one of the pair of terminals has respective one of discharge parts formed integrally thereto. The discharging parts are contacted with each other before contacting the contact parts. The discharging parts are disengaged from each other after disengaging the contact parts.
Preferably, the respective one of the discharge members is a spring piece extending forward from respective one of side parts of the pair of the terminals in a mating direction.
According to the second aspect of the invention, a terminal assembly includes a first terminal having a first contact. The first terminal has a first discharge part with a second contact extending from the first terminal. The second contact is displaced from the first contact at a first displacement S1. The assembly includes a second terminal to be mated with the first terminal for conduction. The second terminal has a third contact to be contacted with the first contact. The second terminal has a second discharge part with a fourth contact extending from the second terminal. The fourth contact is to be contacted with the second contact. The fourth contact is displaced from the third contact at a second displacement S2. A relationship of the first displacement S1 and the second displacement S2 is that S1+S2 greater than 0.
Preferably, the first terminal has a protrusion including the first contact at a distal end thereof.
According to a third aspect of the invention, a connector assembly is adapted for a terminal assembly according to the second aspect. A first connector includes a first housing accommodating the first terminal. A second connector includes a second housing to be mated with the first housing. The second housing accommodates the second terminal.
According to the aspects, the discharge members provided to respective one of the pair of terminal are contacted with each other before contacting the contact parts of both the terminals. When disengaging the terminals, the discharging members are disengaged from each other after disengaging the contact parts. If an arc discharge generates between the discharge members, detrimental effect to the contact parts is prevented from extending. Thus, the contact parts of the terminals do not have deterioration and damage due to the arc discharge, and the terminals as well as the connectors are improved in reliability.
The discharge members are spring pieces extending from a pair of side parts of the terminals, and the discharge members are at a distance apart from each other, so that an arc discharge effect is prevented from extending to the contact parts.
The discharge members securely contact before contacting the contact parts and the discharge members securely contact at disengagement of the contact parts. Thus, discharge members are securely disengaged from each other after disengaging the contact parts, and detrimental effect to the contact parts is prevented from extending.